Wednesday, August 31st, 2005.
The Anniston Star
In this article we read information about the City of New Orleans in havoc. The citizens who were unable to escape the event are now being called refugees, but more so, looters. The survivors are depicted as bad people for getting supplies for themselves. The article described dozens of looters ransacking stores for supplies.
"City under siege. Looting, desperation spread in New Orleans". This headline depicts survivors suddenly lowering their standards of living and sinking down to stealing. This shows them being weak, and defenseless, as well as the same time showing that they've become animal like, mad, if you will. I don't feel like this headline is biased. I also don't feel like race is a factor in the language used. The article describes looters rummaging through flooded stores and that only.
The main article and the articles around are focused on suffering. The main article has a police officer that states "We're so screwed", the article left of it is about Katrina's death toll rising up, and the article beneath is about high gas prices. Each article's purpose is to show how people today are suffering physically, mentally, and economically. The intended audience of each article is for general audience. The articles were written to show how people in the U.S are facing hardships.
The headlines may impact readers viewpoints by showing outsiders are after the city, not the people who are actually suffering. This may make people feel disgusted with people who take advantage of situations for personal benefit. These stories are important because they are very literal. They tell you straight what's going on in New Orleans. They aren't trying to sugar coat the fact that New Orleans is destroyed and people are suffering from it. The authors want to share these news stories to people so they can be informed.
I believe there is a relationship between race and media coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In this article, it isn't very visible, but there are tons of other articles that do have that relationship. I wish there wasn't that problem of having one connect to the other, because the color of your skin shouldn't decide what news gets reported. People only want to hear interesting stories, and a topic that is considered "interesting" has to do with stereotypes based on race. This type of media coverage isn't right because it's biased and unfair. We shouldn't be shining light to solely negativity of certain races, but positivity as well.
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